Libby Hemphill » Politics

Lots of “debt” and very few “leaders”

libbyh — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 21:16:12 +0000

Wonder what those politicians are spending all that time on Twitter talking about? Well, here’s what they were talking about over the summer:
Data for this Wordle came from tweets between June and August from the 389 members of Congress whose Twitter accounts I could verify.

Chicago Politicians on Twitter

libbyh — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 15:49:54 +0000

Many of Chicago’s Aldermen, and certainly the Mayor, have adopted Twitter. Using all the tweets they posted, and all those posted by others who mentioned them, I was able to make the following graph of Chicago’s politicians on Twitter.

In this image, orange discs are Mayor Emanuel’s two Twitter accounts, blue discs are Aldermen’s accounts, and gray discs are neither (I want to say constituents, but I can’t assume all are). The opacity and weight of the lines connecting them depend on how often the two people talk about or to each other on Twitter. The size of the discs is determined by their in-degree, or how often someone talks about them. We see that two Aldermen figure prominently in the social media conversation, and both respond to people pretty frequently (outgoing arrows). What this means yet, I’m not sure, but it may indicate something about the responsiveness of politicians. The next step is to determine whether any of the properties we can identify in the network relate to things in the real world, e.g., voting behavior, responsiveness, public approval.

Jahna Otterbacher, Matt Shaprio, and I just received funding from IIT’s Social Network Workshop to continue our study of politicians and social media use, so stay tuned.

Dear Rep. Culberson

libbyh — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 03:23:03 +0000

I heard the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice & Science (CJS) is considering changing the 2012 appropriation to eliminate the Social, Behavioral & Economic Sciences (SBE). My Representative does not serve on this committee, but I feel pretty strongly about basic science funding and its positive contributions to our economy. So, I tried to write to some members of the Committee. Unfortunately, their websites do not accept contact forms from people outside their districts. Rather than lie to get the form to submit, I decided to post one my letters publicly instead. Below, you’ll find what I meant to send to Rep. John Culberson of Texas’s Seventh District. If any of the men (yes, all the members are men) on the committee are your representative, please contact him. If you’d like to know how much SBE funding is active in your district, use NSF’s Award Search to find out. You can search by institution and NSF Organization.

Dear Rep. Culberson,

I am alarmed to hear that the House Commerce, Justice & Science Committee is considering eliminating or severely cutting back the directorate for Social, Behavioral & Economic Sciences (SBE) at the National Science Foundation (NSF). I understand that government spending exceeds our current funds, but eliminating funding for basic science research will make the U.S. even less competitive, making our future economic situation even worse.

A quick check of SBEâ€™s recent funding shows a number of large grants awarded to universities in your district, so Iâ€™m sure you can appreciate how important SBE funding really is. For instance, at Rice University, SBE is currently funding roughly $1.8M in basic social science research. Do you know what $1.8M in NSF money buys? It could pay to educate, feed, house, and provide health care for 30 graduate students for a year – 30 highly educated Texans who would leave Rice equipped with the knowledge and experience to improve our economic future. Grants like those researchers at Rice receive are integral to graduate education and social science research.

Cutting SBE will end up costing much more than you could save by eliminating it. Investment in basic science research is an investment in our future. Yes, cuts need to be made, but basic social science funding should be protected. The integration of all the basic sciences at the NSF represents one of our national treasures and yields competitive advantage. Iâ€™m writing to you because my Representative does not serve on the Committee, and you seemed like a man who would listen. I hope you hear from some of the people directly benefiting from this funding in your own district, maybe even at Rice. Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,
Libby Hemphill, PhD
Assistant Professor
Illinois Institute of Technology
Chicago, IL

Death and Taxes: 2009 Poster

libbyh — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 15:07:20 +0000

Have you seen this fantastic poster from WallStats?

I’m digging interesting visualizations even more than usual lately, and I especially like this one of our federal spending. I’m not posting it here to start an argument about how we should spend; I just really love the poster and how it shows us where we do spend.

Thanks, FlowingData for telling me about the poster. You should all go visit and subscribe to FlowingData immediately. You may even be able to win a Death and Taxes:2009 poster. I won’t enter because I’m trying to cut down on the stuff I buy and will eventually have to move. Please, someone, win a poster and show it to me!

Best Jobs of 2008: Professor

libbyh — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 15:27:18 +0000

U.S. News included “Professor” on its list of 31 best jobs for 2008. That’s cool. They even provide an executive summary of why they like it so much. They’re right that tenure is pretty sweet, if you can get it. They’re not so right that being a woman helps you land a tenure-track job though. Beware the popular press. Well, all the press really. Just beware.

I don’t mean to be a stampeding feminist, well, maybe I do. Doesn’t matter. What does matter is that the gender gap in tenure-track hiring and tenure awarding is not closed, and women are most certainly not getting the advantage U.S. News claims.

Quick look at references about gender bias in tenure-track hiring:

Stenpreis, R., Anders, K.A., and Ritzke, D. (1999) The Impact of Gender on the Review of the Curricula Vitae of Job Applicants and Tenure Candidates: A National Empirical Study. Sex Roles. 41(7), 509-528.

von Anders, S.M. (2005) Why the Academic Pipeline Leaks: Fewer Men than Women Perceive Barriers to Becoming Professors. Sex Roles. 51(9-10), 511-521.

Chronicle of Higher Ed – 11/6/2006 – AAUP Report Blames Colleges for Gender Inequity Among Professors